Blogs

Web Shows

Resources

Puffins in peril

A puffin looks around after emerging from its burrow on Eastern Egg Rock off the Maine coast, July 1, 2013.

The puffins were nearly wiped out a century ago and 40 years ago biologists launched a re-colonization effort called the Puffin Project by transplanting puffin chicks from Newfoundland to man-made burrows on the island.

Occupancy of puffin burrows on Matinicus Rock and at Seal Island, the two largest U.S. puffin colonies, are down by at least a third this season, said Steve Kress, director of the National Audubon Society's seabird restoration program. That likely means many birds died over the winter and others were too weak to produce offspring this season.

Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

A puffin prepares to land with a bill full of fish on Eastern Egg Rock off the Maine coast, July 1, 2013.

Last year young puffins died at an alarming rate from starvation because of a shortage of herring. This summer the young are getting plenty of hake and herring, said Kress.

Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

Dr. Steve Kress walks through tall vegetation on Eastern Egg Rock, a seven-acre island where he led the successful effort to re-colonize puffins off the Maine coast, July 3, 2013.

Because puffins are less adaptable than other seabirds, they're more vulnerable to environmental changes and serve as a good indicator of the health of oceans and the availability of certain types of fish, Kress said.

Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

A puffin walks next to a decoy of a razor billed auk on Eastern Egg Rock, July 1, 2013.

Decoys help attract nesting birds to the island.

With colorful beaks, puffins look like a cross between a penguin and a parrot. They spend most of their lives at sea, coming ashore only to breed each spring, drawing camera-toting tourists by the boatload before the birds depart late in the summer.

Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

A puffin prepares to land on Eastern Egg Rock, July 1, 2013.

The number painted on the rock marks a burrow. Puffins nest beneath the rocks preferring remote islands that have no predators, such as minks.

Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

Field biologists row to shore from a moored boat at Eastern Egg Rock, off the Maine coast, July 1, 2013.

Bird blinds are used for monitoring puffins.

Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

A puffin prepares to land with a bill full of fish on Eastern Egg Rock, off the Maine coast, July 1, 2013.

Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP

Dr. Steve Kress talks on Eastern Egg Rock, July 3, 2013. Forty years ago Kress and his team of researchers began transplanting puffin chicks from Newfoundland to man-made burrows on the remote island in Muscongus Bay.

"The puffins will teach us about the oceans and what's happening to them," Kress said.